Rotel Amp Opinions Wanted (1 Viewer)

[Jerry Raupp]

Time to pull the trigger this week...

I will finally be ordering the B&W N804s with a HTM1 and CDM9NTs for rears. Now I just have to decide on power. I am getting a beyond fantastic deal for the speakers and Rotel amps so that is what I am going with. The options are as follows:

6ch

1090+1080+1080
or
1080+1080+1080

The question here is if the added cost of the 1090 is worth it to drive the N804s, opinions?

7ch

1090+1095
or
1080+1095

The first question is the same as above, however, I am also trying to decide if 7ch is a viable format and if it is worth the trade off in quality between two 1080s vs. one 1095 to power the center and surrounds. Again, opinions?

Thanks in advance for helping me with my pleasing problem.

 

[Thomas_Berg]

i would add as much power to those speakers as you can. where i work, we run ~200 wpc to the floor 804's and they sound great. i just think the more power you throw into them, the better they sound. basically, get the 1095.

unless you really like listening to music in 7.1 (and it's that much better to you than 5.1 listening), i say stick to 5.1, especially since nothing is encoded for 7.1 yet. when listening to multichannel music, i am fully enveloped by the sound and i cannot justify spending the extra cash to get two more speakers in the back. again, this is a personal decision, so don't let anyone else but you make the decision. if 7.1 is worth is to you, go for it!

 

[Walt Meger]

Jerry:

I've been driving my N804s with a 1090 for over a year now. You will appreciate the extra output when listening in stereo mode. I am driving the other three channels of my 5.1 set-up with a 1095. The extra two channels on the 1095 are being used to drive a stereo remote setup.

 

[Sihan Goi]

The 1090 is an extremely good amp for its price. It was reviewed favorably in The Absolute Sound when compared against an Odyssey Stratos. While the RMB-1095 is already one of the best 5 channel amps for its price, the 1090 is a step up in both power and sound quality, so if you ask me I'd go with the 1090 for the mains and the 1095 to handle the rest. Personally though I "only" have the 1095 driving my 5 channels, and I'm already a happy camper.

 

[Mark Austin]

Using the 9NT's for rears is almost a sin.

 

[Gregg Z]

Hi Jerry,

One other combo for you to consider..

RMB-1095 + RMB-1066

The RMB-1066 is a 6x60w amp that can be bridged to 3x150w. I plan on doing this setup and using the RMB-1066 to drive the center back pair of speakers and my zone 2 speakers. The RMB-1066 also has adjustable gain, so my hope is to be able to dial in the gain to match the gain on the RMB-1095. The RMB-1066 lists at $699.

Gregg

 

[Darrel McBane]

I have both the 1090 and 1095. The sound difference is quite noticeable between the two. Both are great amps. But, the power of the 1090 brings my Revel speakers to a new level of enjoyment.

Good luck with your system.

 

[Andy Bell]

I have the 1090 and 1095 setup also. I had the 1080 driving my Paradigm Studio 100s for a year, it is a good amp but the 1090 was worth the switch up. I just added the 1095 last week to drive the other speakers in my 7.1 setup. I am very pleased with this combo.
Do you have dedicated 20 amp breakers? The newer 1090s have a larger power supply that will "pop" most 15 amp breakers. The 1090 I demoed from my dealer worked fine on a 15 amp breaker, but the new one I bought popped the breaker. I had to run a dedicated 20 amp line and install 20 amp "HIGH MAGNETIC" breakers to handle the surge when you turn it on.
This was discussed by some other Rotel 1090 and 1095 owners awhile back and I thought I'd mention it to you in case this might be an issue for you. The 1080 gave no prblems on a 15 amp line. Enjoy your new amps.

 

[Jeremy Hegna]

I agree. The 1090 is a step up in performance compared to the 1080 and 1095. Dual Monoblock set-up, massive damping factor, 380wattsx2@8ohm and 700+@4ohm. I also concur with Andy. I had the circuit breaker problem initially on a dedicated circuit. I had just wired 2 20a circuits into the HT room and my circuit tripped every time I fired it up. I had short duration breakers and that was a problem. Since I've changed out the breakers, life with the 1090 Nautilus 802 combo has been great.

The 1095 is a great amplifier, but you can buy 2 1080s for the same price. The 1080s are 2 channel amplifiers and there is a difference in output and sound compared to the 1095. My vote would be 1 1090 and 2 1080s.


Jeremy

 

[Joe e h]

I would go with the 1090 & 1095. I also ahd to install a High Mag breaker. It cost around $6 and took less then 10 minutes to install

Joe

 

[Jerry Raupp]

Thanks for all the replies, Looks like Friday will be the day. Also, can anyone who owns a RB-1090 confirm for me that it does not have the 12v trigger? Thanks

 

[Andy Bell]

Jerry,
Unfortunately the 1090 has no 12v trigger.

 

[PhillipC]

Which combination would be better? Two 1080's biamped together or one 1090?

 

[rodneyH]

gregg, good point, I run the 976 (predicesor to the 1066) for the center (cdm1nt) and rears (601) as well, a great budget way to go and now use a 200x2 Marsh sound design for my mains (cdm7nts)

WOW, CDM9NTs for rears???? are you kidding me??

 

[Pete H]

The 1090 will sound better than passively biamping the 1080's. The general rule is a good amp will sound better than running two fair amps. By the way you can substitute good with great and fair with very good.